Empire Merchants North, LLC - Smooth day to day Operations

Empire Merchants North, LLC is a growing wine and liquor distributor and the largest one serving the State of New York. Serving more than 15,000 retail accounts and a portfolio of 10,000 products sourced by 100 suppliers, Empire Merchants North was formed in 2007 through the merger of Colony Liquor and Service-Universal Distributors. The company is a proud member of the Charmer Sunbelt Group, one of the nation's leading liquor and non-alcoholic beverage distributors.

Challenges

Merger: The liquor distributor continues to manage and grow its business with the Lawson M3 solution as its core business and IT infrastructure, including financial management, customer and sales order management, distribution planning as well as inventory and warehouse management.

Challenges mounted in 2007 when the merger doubled the company's size. Empire Merchants North's in-house ERP-related IT staff was unable to keep up with growing volume of short-term requests for software changes and other project requests forcing the company to spend an unmanageable amount on outsourced IT consulting. In mid-2008, the company turned to Velocity for remote application management and consulting services involving all its M3 and related business applications.

Solutions

Velocity provides remote application management at a fixed cost per month, giving Empire Merchants North real control over its IT costs:

• From finance, procurement and product data management to forecasting, distribution and supply chain management, Velocity services cover the entire range of Empire Merchant North's operations under the M3 solution as well as related third-party software.
• Velocity provides Empire Merchants North with a diverse range of services including responding to questions relevant to M3 applications, custom interfaces to the Velocity service desk, and assistance with user acceptance testing.
• Velocity promptly responds to requests for tasks such as running reports after business hours and server system security setup, maintenance and change management.
• Velocity's coordination and assistance on issues related to third-party software or interfaces with M3 applications as well as database fixes for data caused by user error or system problems at the liquor distributor have been invaluable to keep its operations running smoothly.
• Velocity's consulting services such as the development of enhanced M3 configurations, software customizations and creating accurate reports for system users have ultimately allowed Empire Merchants North to improve its business processes and streamline operations.

Result

The move to outsource to Velocity has given Empire Merchants North the cost savings it required along with the added efficiencies that come from high service levels:

• Velocity's troubleshooting services and on-call after-hours support have saved the company time, money and headaches, especially at the warehouse level, the heart of its operations as a distributor.
• With a track record of an hour or less response time for critical issues and within four hours for high-priority issues, Velocity has reduced Empire Merchants North's IT project turnaround time by some 40 percent.
• Outsourcing to Velocity has contributed to Empire Merchants North reputation as a well-run organization, whether for its internal operations or for fulfilling orders to customers on a more accurate and timely basis.

Smooth day to day operations, cost controls and customer satisfaction fuel Empire Merchants North's growth, thanks to help from Velocity!